The Third Industrial Revolution

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UPS and 3D printing in the supply chain

THE emergence of three-dimensional (3D) printing will have a revolutionary effect on manufacturing, but it may be equally disruptive for firms that make much of their living warehousing and delivering spare parts for companies. Now, one of the biggest delivery firms, UPS, is going to test 3D printing in its stores.

Stratasys, a Minneapolis company which is one of the leading makers of 3D printers, will provide its uPrint SE desktop machines to six UPS Stores in America for a trial programme. These machines will allow customers to bring their designs to the store and have them printed out as objects—in much the same way as people take two-dimensional digital documents to the store and have them printed on paper. The uPrint machines can produce items in plastic in a range of colours and make bigger objects in finer detail than consumer-level 3D printers.

UPS expects designers, entrepreneurs, start-ups and architects seeking models to be among its customers for 3D printing services. Some people might also be seeking spare parts: it is often small plastic items that break in products, but they can be difficult and expensive to find. Some industrial 3D printers can print metal components too.

“3D printing has the potential to turn manufacturing supply chains on their head,” reckons Anthony Vicari of Lux Research in a report assessing the future of the 3D-printing industry. Despite plenty of hype, 3D printing is not about to replace mass manufacturing, but will enhance it with the ability to make one-offs and small batches of items relatively cheaply.

Instead of holding a central stock of spare parts and distributing them with overnight delivery firms, like UPS, it becomes possible for companies to store digital designs on a server and have the files downloaded and printed out locally whenever new parts are needed. This could be done by a carmaker’s dealers, for instance. Repairmen fixing domestic appliances might print simple components in the back of their vans.

Even if there is no access to the original design file, it is possible to use 3D scanners to reverse-engineer items and then print them out. This could open up a can of worms in patent and design infringements, and it remains to be seen how UPS will deal with such copying. Classic-car restorers already reverse-engineer and 3D-print components to fix vehicles for which parts are no longer obtainable.

The UPS trial is only an experiment to see what the real level of interest in 3D printing will be. Nevertheless, it could evolve into a whole new type of business for the delivery company.

Paul Markillie is Innovation Editor of The Economist. He specialises in writing about emerging and disruptive technologies. His special report “The Third Industrial Revolution” was published by The Economist in 2012 as a cover story and attracted international interest. Other more recent reports include "Knit me a car", a special report on new materials in manufacturing. His previous special reports have included carmaking, aerospace and logistics. Paul was The Economist’s first Asian Business Correspondent, based in Hong Kong, and also served as Asia Editor.